ESPNBoston.com reported Thursday night that the Nets reached out to Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge about potentially sitting down with Rivers to discuss the team’s head coaching opening, but that Ainge refused to grant them permission.

That Ainge would deny the Nets a chance to sit down with Rivers isn’t at all surprising, given that he still has three years and over $20 million remaining on the extension he signed with Boston back in 2011 – one that made him one of the game’s highest-paid coaches – and is widely to be considered among the league’s best coaches.